


strawberry wine

by orphan_account



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, Female Peter Parker, Fluff, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Peter is Penny, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, and caught, dad tony stark, genderbent au, not really angst just teenage rebellion, obviously, penny gets drunk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22274161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Penny and MJ make bad choices (like teenagers do.) First-time-drinker Penny is unaware that it's team movie night and comes to the Tower much drunker than anticipated.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Avengers Team, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 175





	1. The Bad Choices

"Ew, what even is this stuff?" Penny questions, nose scrunching as she takes a sip of the liquid her friend had given her, which burned from the tip of her lips all the way to her stomach.

"Strawberry flavored wine, I think. It was in the back of the cabinet and the labels gone, so I’m not really sure." MJ responds, taking a much more eloquent sip from her glass. "It's all I can take without my parents noticing. If you don't think about it and just kind of chug it, it's not that bad." 

Penny had little to no, (okay, zero) experience drinking, so she followed MJ's lead, taking a large gulp of the drink. She had always told herself she wouldn't drink underage, but Spider-Girl-ing had only gotten harder since school started back up, not to mention the hours she was spending at the Tower. Don't get her wrong, she  _ adores  _ helping Mr. Stark in his lab, but it does leave her schedule pretty crammed. 

God, what would Mr. Stark think if he saw her right now? Penny wondered to herself. He’d be disappointed, she knew that much, but hopefully not disappointed enough to take the suit. Ever since everything happened with Toomes eight months ago, her mind always went to that whenever she did anything wrong. Despite Tony’s countless reassurances that he would only take the suit if, “ _ You’re putting your own life in danger, kid. You can keep it otherwise, I’ll think of some other way to get my points across, promise.” _

She took another sip, gagged, then took another. Her and MJ’s focus was on the Buzzfeed Unsolved episode playing on the laptop before them, and they had nearly finished the bottle by the time the episode had ended. They had both fallen into a sleepy, relaxed, nearly euphoric state when suddenly they heard footsteps.

“Shit!” MJ whisper-yelled, sitting up abruptly, “They weren’t supposed to be home until way later.” Penny looked at her, eyes bleary, with a confused look. MJ elaborated, “I wasn’t supposed to hang out with anybody this weekend, my parents are pissed that I left seventh early on Thursday to go to that climate march.” She said with an eye-roll.

“I’m so sorry Pen, will you be fine to walk home? Isn’t May working tonight?”

Penny shook her head, “May’s upstate for the weekend with Happy, I’m staying at the Tower.  _ Dammit, _ Mr. Starks gonna annihilate me. Do I look normal?” 

MJ started to answer, but not before her mother’s voice rang out through the apartment. “Michelle? Come eat, we brought Chinese!”

“Uhm, yeah, give me a sec!” MJ called back, flailing her arms at Penny. Whispering, she turned back to her friend, “You gotta go, it’s only the second floor, can you jump out the window?” 

Penny nodded slowly, “Y-yeah, yeah, I can do it.” 

Somehow, she couldn’t tell you if you asked, but somehow, Penny ended up on the street below MJ’s bedroom window. Was her knee now scraped? Yes. But she’d been through worse. Sighing, she realized that she’d better start walking if she wanted to make it to the Tower before midnight.

Her walk was brisk, but she kept stumbling, and she knew that anyone who saw her walking right now would know she’s wasted. She was glad that MJ lived a mere twenty-minute walk from her destination, and even more glad that the few people on the streets right now were minding their own business. She mentally scolded herself for getting into this situation, she would never have gotten so drunk if she’d known she would have to interact with Mr. Stark. 

She had to admit, though, she did feel awfully warm and fuzzy on the inside. Her head was cloudy and felt like a fifty-pound weight attached to her neck, but the lack of coherent thought was more than welcome. She started to walk again when she heard someone familiar call out to her.

“Penny?” a voice from behind her asked, and her heart skipped a beat. Slowly turning, she braced herself. Her mind registered the person in front of her as none other than Sam Wilson.

“H-uh-hey Sam, why are-what are you doing out so late?” She asked, unable to stop the slight slur in her voice. He looked at her questioningly,

“It’s team movie night, they banished me to getting popcorn, Friday ordered the wrong kid.” He explained, gesturing to the paper bag in his hand. “What even is the “wrong kind?” It’s _ popcorn.” _ Even an intoxicated Penny could tell that the team had bickered over this for a while.

“Tony said you were staying with a friend, or something, right? Why are you out?” He asked, a glint of suspicion in his eye. 

“Uhmm,” Penny stuttered, unable to find a decent excuse in the fog of her head.  _ C’mon, Penny, he can’t know. You can do this, just, be normal! Dammit.  _ She thought to herself, and Sam blinked at her, waiting for a response.

Penny’s shoulders slumped when a believable excuse failed to cross her mind, “Sam, we’re like, cool, right-t?” She asked, the slur coming back. “If I told you somethin’, and said don’t tell anybody, would you?”

Sam looked at her hard like he was trying to solve a puzzle.

“I think I already know, but go for it, kid. If it’s not what I think it is, then I’m not a snitch.” 

“I, uh, may have dranken a little with MJ. But then her parents came and I can’t stay so I have to walk back. And I’ve never drunk before and everything’s a little,” She gestured to the world around her, “bleary.” 

Sam shook his head, “Yeah, that was my guess.” He sighed, slinging an arm around Penny’s shoulder. “C’mon, we can walk and talk.” 

Penny halted her feet in the ground, “Wait. Telling Mr. Stark? Will y-you? Please don’t.”

Sam rolled his eyes, “Obviously I’m telling him, don’t be a dumbass. Y’know how mad Stark would be if he found out I lied to him about his kid getting drunk?”

Penny pouted but started walking again, tripping a little over her own foot. “Mad, but not as mad as he’s gonna be to me. Pleeaaaseee Sammy?” 

He couldn’t help but snort at that, “Sorry, kid.”

They walked the rest of the way in near silence, besides Penny babbling about every building she saw.

“And that ones tall, and that ones a little taller, and that ones gray, and-”

“And we’re here.”

“Noooo, Sam-”

“C’mon, kid, you have to go in.”

Penny could swear that they were in the elevator for an hour, but finally, the doors opened and revealed the penthouse. Tony, Steve, Bucky, Nat, Clint, Bruce, and Pepper were gathered on the couch, clearly waiting for Sam, and Penny thought she was gonna throw up. 

“Stark! I believe I have something of yours.” Sam called out, walking the two of them out of the elevator. Tony looked over to them, eyes widening when he saw Penny. 

“Hey, kiddo! I thought you were spending the night at MJ’s?” He quickly corrected himself. “Not that you aren’t welcome here, of course.”

Clint spoke up from his corner of the couch, “We’re watching E.T!”

Sam sighed, tossing the bag filled with several bags of popcorn to Nat, who caught it effortlessly. “Stark, your kid needs to tell you something.” 

All eyes turned to Penny, who was hyperfocused on the painting hung on the wall, balancing all her weight on Sam. 

“I-uh,” Penny stuttered, not expecting Sam to put her on the spot like that. She looked up at him, betrayed. He looked unbothered.

“What? I told you you gotta tell him.”

Penny rolled her eyes, “You didn’t saayy I had to tell all of’em!” She whined, the slur still heavily influencing her voice. 

Before she had the chance to say anything else, Tony spoke.

“Jesus, kid, are you drunk?” He asked, near-disbelief in his voice. The whole team stared at her expectantly, various ranges of disappointment etched into their faces. Ever since everyone had started living at the tower pretty much full time, Penny had gotten closer with them than ever. Although she mostly hung out with Tony, the others enjoyed her company and made efforts to spend time with her whenever they had the chance. 

“I-I’m…” She sighed, realizing that lying wouldn’t get her anywhere. ”...yeah. But only a littlleee bit, and I promise I thought I wasn’t coming here.” She explained, Sam leading her over to a spot on the couch where they both sat. 

“Lemme get this straight,” Tony said, and Penny could see Pepper stroke his now-clenched hand with her thumb. “You thought that since you weren’t coming to the tower, it’s perfectly fine and dandy for you to get  _ drunk _ at the age of 15?”

Penny sighed, exasperated. Her head hurt and she couldn’t talk right or think straight and all she wanted was to go to bed. “Like none of you ever did when you were my age, are you joking?!  _ Party-boy Stark Gone Wild  _ ring a bell?” 

A chorus of stern “hey’s” filled the room, and Bruce, of all people, was the one to speak up. 

“Don’t talk about things you don’t understand, Penny. You haven’t seen how hard Tony’s worked to get back on his feet. Don’t be a jerk, especially not to someone who’s done so much for you.” 

Penny’s face fell at his words, especially since she’d looked up to Dr. Banner for what felt like forever. Before anyone could say anything else, Pepper stood.

“Penny, why don’t you go up to your room for the night, I’ll bring you a set of pajamas, alright? You and Tony can discuss this in the morning.” She said briskly, clearly trying to end any further conflict before it began.

Penny nodded, standing up and turning away from the group on the couch before they could see the hot tears that had sprung into her eyes. She quickly made her way down the hallway to her room. Her room.  _ You have a goddamn room here, he welcomes you into his home, and you’re gonna treat him like that?  _ Penny’s conscious screams at her. She could feel herself sobering up, and her head was steadily pounding. Before Pepper could even bring her the promised pajamas, Penny had gotten into her bed and fallen asleep.


	2. The Morning After

Penny awoke to a fire in her head. She groaned, looking at her phone for the time. _3:28am_ , the screen blared back at her. God, she wished she could just erase the entire previous 12 hours. She should’ve just come to the tower, hung out with the team, done that damn Spanish homework she’d been putting off, and not ruined their movie night. 

She curled her hand into a fist, digging her nails into her own skin. She knew she fucked up, and all she wanted was to apologize to Mr. Stark and the team and have everything be okay again.

That is, if an apology was even enough. She didn’t deserve his forgiveness, she knew that. God, she had been such an asshole, bringing up his past. She had no right to do that, she knew it. In the whole year that she’d known him, she hadn’t seen him have a _sip_ of alcohol. 

To have his shitty teenage years brought up by the girl he had taken in, cared for, and taught everything she knew about...pretty much everything. He built her a multi-million dollar suit, for God’s sake. How could she have been such a brat? 

Penny took a deep breath, steadying herself as she stood up. “Fri, am I allowed to go to the kitchen for some water?” She asked the A.I.

“Yes, Penny, Miss Potts never technically restricted you to this room only. I would suggest being quiet, though. You’re on fairly thin ice with the team at the moment.”

Penny started to walk to the kitchen, not before thanking Friday for the information, even though it was blunt. It was almost unreal how badly she’d screwed up. She knew they were mad at her, but hearing it from the A.I was just salt to the wound.

Silently entering the kitchen, Penny jumped when she saw a figure leaning on the counter, eating a bowl of cereal. She started to back away, but they had already seen her. 

“Hey, kid. How’ya feelin?” Clint asked, looking almost amused. 

“I-uh, sorry, Mr. Barton, Friday didn’t say anybody else was up. I can-” She began to walk away, but Clint stopped her with a gentle hand to her arm.

“Hey, it’s fine, kiddo. It’s probably best if you get some water in your system, something like that.” He grabbed a glass from one of the several cabinets lining the kitchen, and filled it with water from the dispenser in the fridge. Handing it to her, Penny accepted with a small ‘thank you’. 

“Are they…” Penny carefully chose her words, “How mad is everybody?”

Clint gave her a pitying smile, “Tony’s pissed, but I think you knew that already. He’ll get over it though, I think he’s just freaked out about you becoming like him, or something.”

_(I just wanted to be like you!_

_And I wanted you to be better.)_

“Other than that,” He continued, “I mean, everybody kinda sees you as their pseudo-niece or something like that. So nobody’s too happy at the moment, but they’ll all be fine once they see you tomorrow. I think they were mostly upset that you were being an ass to Tony, not really as much about the fact that you drank. It’s not like any of us are Boy Scouts, except for Cap, probably.” He said, which Penny let out a small laugh at, before sombering up.

“God, I really screwed up this time, didn’t I?” She asked, and Clint looked thoughtful.

“It’s nothing that can’t be forgiven. Now, if you come stumbling into the tower drunk _again,_ we’ll really have a problem. But if you have a talk with Tony tomorrow and give him a sincere apology, and at least say sorry to the rest of the team for causing a ruckus, you’ll be everybody’s favorite again in no time.” He assured her, ruffling her messy brown hair. 

Penny laughed at that, “God, _never._ Not even when I’m in my thirties, I feel like total sh-crap.”

“Yeah, it’ll do that to you, especially the first time you drink. You’re lucky that metabolism of yours soaked it up pretty quickly, Sam said you were a hot mess when he found you. 

Penny cringed at that, “Did Sam say anything else?”

“Well, we all talked for a while after you went upstairs. We watched the movie, too, so don’t feel too bad, you didn’t completely screw up movie night. Sam basically just told us the whole story,”

“God, he’s such a snitch,” Penny mumbled, still irritable from her headache. Clint smacked her on the shoulder, just enough to sting. “Have some respect, c’mon now. You’re lucky he found you, it’s not safe to be wandering around the city drunk, especially as a 15-year-old girl.”

Penny looked at her feet, nodding. “I know, I’m sorry.”

Clint sighed, “I know you’re mad at Sam, but he did the right thing telling Tony. If Lila was running around the city drunk, and somebody on the team knew and didn’t tell me… let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Tony cares about you so much, kid, and he just wants you to be safe. And sometimes that means you getting in trouble, and that’s just how it is.”

Penny nodded, “I know, I get it. Thanks, Mr. Barton.” 

He smiled at her, “You can call me Clint, y’know. And anytime, kid. Now go to bed, maybe tomorrow after you talk with Tony he’ll let you train with us.” 

Penny snorted at that, “I doubt it, I’ll probably be banished to my room for the rest of the weekend.”

Clint shrugged, “Maybe. We’ll see.”

With that, Penny turned and walked back to her room. Flopping back in bed, she felt a little better about the whole situation, but there was still a heavy weight on her chest. And she knew she wouldn’t feel better until she apologized to Tony.

\--------

Penny woke up to Friday’s morning alarm sound, a little melody that was endearing but got old quickly.

“Fri, I’m up.” She called, throwing a pillow at the ceiling as if that would shut the A.I up. 

“Boss is requesting your presence in his lab, Penny.”

Penny took a deep breath, this is the conversation she’d been dreading. “Tell him I’ll be there in 10 minutes, Fri.”

“Will do.”

Penny sped through a shower, only half drying her hair, before putting on leggings and a big MIT sweatshirt (which was Tony’s- she had “stolen” it a few months ago after a particularly rough day of patrolling.) Looking in the mirror one last time before exiting her room, she mentally prepared herself for the worst.

She took the elevator down a floor to Tony’s lab, letting herself in. She saw him sitting at one of the worktables, fiddling with something that looked like a piece of one of his suits, Mark 38, she was guessing. He stopped when he saw her, turning so he was completely facing her.

“Come sit, kid.” He said, and she did. Before he could say anything, Penny started to talk.

“Listen, Mr. Stark, I’m so so _so_ sorry about last night. It was so incredibly dumb of me to drink in the first place, and I was so rude to you, I’m just really really sorry. If you want to take the suit or kick me out for the weekend, or whatever you want to do, I completely understand. I have a spare key, I can take care of myself, May’s only gone for another day and a half. I just...nothing like this will ever happen again, I swear.”

Tony waited for her to stop, before speaking. “Are you done?”

She nodded.

“Okay, good. First of all, kid, I’m not kicking you anywhere, and I’m sure as hell not taking the suit, not after everything that happened last time. Listen, yes, you screwed up. And yes, there will be consequences, but you don’t have to worry about me ditching you if you mess up, okay? There’s nothing you can do that will make me want you any less. You’re...well, you’re kinda like my kid, and I don’t want you worrying about that, okay?”

“Okay.”

He nodded sharply, “Good. Now, if you ever come into this building, actually, if you ever go anywhere or do anything while drunk, or even get drunk to begin with, before the age of 21, I _will_ find out and I _will_ ground your ass until you _are_ 21\. Did I tell you that May gave me grounding privileges?”

Penny shook her head. 

“Well, she did, and I’m not afraid to use them. You get a pass this time, but take this as your one get-out-of-jail-free card, you hear me? And that’s only because I can tell you’re really sorry.”

“Mr. Stark, I swear, nothing like this will ever happen again. It was a one-time thing, I promise.”

He nodded, “I believe you, kiddo. Now, just because we’re all good, I think you still have the team to apologize to. And don’t think May’s not gonna hear about this, okay?”

Penny groaned, “Really, Mr. Stark?”

“Really. I do feel a little bad for you on that one, kid, I can’t lie. May’s a scary woman when she wants to be. And Penny?”

“Yeah?”

“I hope you know I’m here if you need to talk. So is everybody else. I know you and MJ were just drinking for fun, but that can turn into drinking to escape really quickly. That’s the last thing I want for you.”

“I know, Mr. Stark, and thank you,” Penny said, nodding. 

“Of course, Pen. Now, if you want to go talk to the team, maybe after you can join us for training if you’re up for it. Have you taken any Advil?”

“Not yet, but my head is fine, pretty much. Super healing, I guess.”

Tony nodded in understanding, and they went back up to the penthouse, where the team was scattered around the kitchen eating breakfast. 

When they saw the duo, they all chorused a ‘hey, guys’ or ‘good morning’. Penny smiled at the fact that none of them seemed _too_ upset. If Mr. Stark could forgive her, hopefully, so would everyone else. 

“Uh, I just wanted to apologize for last night,” Penny said, getting the attention of the group. “I was just being really dumb and I promise it won’t happen again.”

To her surprise and relief, she was met with warm smiles.

“You’re fine, kid. Everybody has to be dumb sometimes, it’s called being 15. It’s the fact you apologized that matters.” Steve said, and everyone spoke their agreements.

Tony patted her shoulder, “If you want to go get changed, we’re gonna start training in 15, you still up for it?”

“Definitely.” Penny said with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol sorry if you were expecting more arguing, i just couldn't do that to our faves <3 hope you enjoyed this little two parter! i'm gonna try to be alot more active as a writer, not just a reader. leave a comment if you want, theyre super super appreciated! remember that you are loved and cared about and im glad youre here :^)


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